hey guys. me and my friend were riding today and he has an 03 prairie 650 and we were goin down a gravel road at about 50 + mph.... i pulled away from him and got about 1/4 mile down the road only to look back and see nothing but White smoke in the woods. i turned back around and went back and i could barely see him through the smoke. he said it just lost power and he tried hitting the throttle and it would not go faster than 30. he stopped and waited and checked the airbox and the oil level and the radiator and the coolant level.. everything was fine. but the white smoke was horrible. the smoke just started pouring out the back end of his quad like a fog machine on high... lol. he then started it up again and the thickest white smoke i've ever seen came pouring out of his exhaust pipe. we had been riding all day long and had no problems until this ... and we were about 5 miles from the truck. so i hooked up the tow rope and towed him back to the truck and trailer and we loaded and went home..... haven't started it since... oil level was fine and everything. He said he was gonna take it to the dealer and have them look at it. he thought it was a ring/seal on one of the pistons went bad. I have never seen this type of smoke or anything like this b4. this is the 2nd time i've had to tow his prairie back to the truck w/ my sprtsman 700... good thing he got the extended warranty. but i was wondering if any of you guys experienced anything like this or heard of anything like this?... thx in advance.. i'll keep you posted on what happens

 

SOUNDS LIKE YOU ARE GETTING ANTI FREEZE .. SOUNDS LIKE YOU GOT A HEAD GASKET GONE. WAS THE WHITE SMOKE SWEAT SMELLING?? SOUNDS LIKE THE HEAD GASKET TO ME BUT THAT IS JUST MY GUESS.. SKUN

 

The symptoms you describe are usally associated with the crank case being overfull.

when you check the oil, are you screwing the dip stick in and back out, or just "dip sticking" it ??
( this may seem like a dumb question, but we have heard of even dealers doing the "dip stick" thing )

 

yes.. he fully screwed in the dip stick and had enuf oil. and skun... it may be the head gasket. it sort of smelt like a burning of some kind.. i have no idea what it is supposed to smell like if antifreeze is gettin in the wrong place. and he has been running it at the same oil level for about 200 miles now.. and no problems until today. dont know whats wrong. thx for the fast replies

 

Mine did that once,some critters thought it would be funny to build a nest in my exhaust.About 15 mins into the ride it started smoking like crazy.BUT yours sounds like a head or gasket.

 

Seems like you would have posted this in the Kawasaki forum[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

I think you are more confused than you realize [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Have you cleaned/oiled the air filter lately. If so, did you get rid of the excess filter oil? Just a thought. Are you SURE the smoke IS white, and not a little blueish tinted?

 

he has not touched the filter since his first service. and it is white. almost a light light light gray... but it was white. no blued

 

This may sound weird but mine did this right after I got it. My friends did the same thing. Both had maybe 3 hours of ride time on them. I was just cruising along and it started to miss a little... Then it got gradually worse. I looked back and I was giving off a smoke screen that James Bond would be proud of. My buddies had done the same thing almost 4 months prior to mine. His was also in its break in period. In both our cases we had to be towed home. A couple days later, I fired it up, just as my friend before had done and it was fine. I was like WTF??? Not sure what it was but in both instances, we were sure the motor was shelled. I would let it sit and cool down for a day and fire it up and see if it doesn't work itself out... If it had just been my buddies that did it, I would say it was a freak deal, but since mine did the exact same thing, maybe more of them are suspect to doing this...